THE MANAGEMENT OF Wilson’s Hospital School wants former teacher Enoch Burke jailed again for breaching court orders banning him from attending the school, which it claimed in the High Court today was disrupting the beginning of the new school term.

Ms Justice Nessa Cahill heard that Burke was back at the school and its grounds, posing for selfies with some pupils in the school and setting a bad example of his claimed ability to defy judges and court orders.

Judge Cahill was told that the only time Burke stayed away from the school was when he was in prison and during school holidays. Counsel for the school said he had turned up again at the start of the new school term.

Burke was suspended in 2022 and some months afterwards was dismissed. He kept turning up for work at the school in defiance of court orders for which he has been jailed several times and his bank account is being drained of his wages that are still being paid to him pending an appeal against his dismissal.

The court heard today that a Courts Service account being monitored by a Receiver has reached €70,000 and growing.

Judge Cahill was told that he continued turning up at the Co Westmeath school in defiance of a High Court order directing him to stay away and when questioned by the principal or staff he kept repeating that he had turned up for work.

The High Court has ruled that the decision of the school to suspend Burke on paid leave in August 2022 was a correct one.

Burke has argued this is unlawful and is as a result of his opposition to the extension of transgender rights following a direction by the school to call a former student by using the “they” pronoun. He has spent months in prison in defiance of court orders.

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Burke has at all times denied being in contempt of court and claims he was wrongfully imprisoned.

Judge Cahill granted short service in relation to a motion to come before the court next Thursday seeking his attachment and committal to prison again.